Month: April 2021

queer for april 14
1960

The original Broadway production of the musical “Bye Bye Birdie,” starring Chita Rivera, Dick Van Dyke, Dick Gautier, Paul Lynde, Kay Medford, and Michael J. Pollard, opened at New York’s Martin Beck Theater for 607 performances.

1967

David Bowie’s novelty record ‘The Laughing Gnome’ was released in the UK. The track consisted of the singer meeting and conversing with the creature of the title, whose sped-up voice (created by Bowie and studio engineer Gus Dudgeon) delivered several puns on the word “gnome”. The song became a hit when reissued in 1973, despite it being radically different to his material at the time, the single made No. 6 in the UK charts.

1969
Barbra Streisand (Funny Girl) tied Katherine Hepburn (The Lion In Winter) for Best Actress at the Academy Awards.

April 14, 1972
David Bowie released ‘Starman’ as a single in the UK, which became his first hit since 1969’s ‘Space Oddity’ three years before. The song was a late addition to the album The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars included at the insistence of RCA’s Dennis Katz, who heard a demo and loved the track, believing it would make a great single. The lyrics describe Ziggy Stardust bringing a message of hope to Earth’s youth through the radio, salvation by an alien ‘Starman’.

1973
Anne Murray was at 7 with “Danny’s Song”

1978
The Johnny Cash special “Spring Fever” aired on CBS-TV with guests Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter, June Carter Cash, Rosanne Cash and Ray Charles.

1979
song charts
Gloria Gaynor’s former #1 “I Will Survive” was at 2
Blondie had song #8 with “Heart Of Glass”, with number nine Suzi Quatro & Chris Norman had “Stumblin’ In”

Lp Charts
Gloria Gaynor with Love Tracks at #6

1980
ABC aired Olivia Newton John’s TV special “Olivia’s Hollywood Nights,” with guest performers Elton John, the Carpenters, and Andy Gibb.

1984

on the LP Charts:
#2 The “Footloose” Soundtrack

#6 Culture Club with Colour By Numbers,

#7 the Eurythmics’ album Touch
#9 The Pretenders album Learning to Crawl
#10 Cyndi Lauper She’s So Unusual.

The Texas Board of Education began requiring that the state’s public school textbooks describe evolution as “theory rather than fact.”

(what LGBTQ2 contends with)

1986

Members of the First Church of the Nazarene in Ironton, Ohio, held a record burning after evangelist Jim Brown told them that the song “A Horse is a Horse,” the theme song from the U.S. TV show “Mr. Ed,” contained satanic messages when played backwards
(what LGBTQ2 contends with)

1993

In Bosnia, Joan Baez performed for 700 people in war-torn Sarajevo.

2004

Dolly Parton received the Living Legend Medal from the U.S. Library of Congress for her contributions to the cultural heritage of the United States.

Sophie B. Hawkins (“As I Lay Me Down”) won a lawsuit against a man selling pirated copies of her new album Wilderness.

2008

Brian May, guitarist for Queen, was named chancellor of John Moore University in Liverpool, England.

2013

Justin Bieber caused outrage after writing a message in a guestbook at the Anne Frank Museum, which stated he hoped the Holocaust victim would have been a fan. The 19-year-old wrote: “Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a belieber.” It provoked fierce online criticism of the Canadian singer, who was in Amsterdam as part of a tour.

Bieber has claimed to be bisexual, most likely as queerbaiting audience, and has embarrassed Canada several times, including being rape positive in a rolling stone interview.

2017

Harry Styles’s debut single ‘Sign of the Times’ broke Ed Sheeran’s 13-week run at the top of the UK charts. The One Direction star achieved his first No.1 as a solo artist with this release – the first from his self-titled debut album.

The annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival opened near Palm Springs, California. Scheduled headliners during the 4-day event spread over two weekends were Radiohead, Lady Gaga and Kendrick Lamar, with more than 160 other music acts slated to perform.